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In OtherWords: May 10, 2017
Donald Trump fired FBI director Jim Comey this week — that much, of course, is headline news everywhere. One more detail, though: He reportedly did so at the urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Many speculate that the administration wanted to cut off Comey's...
If Washington Won’t Rein in Corporate Greed, Your State Might
Josh Elliott is fed up with overpaid CEOs. As the owner of a Connecticut natural foods market with 40 employees, he says he could never justify pocketing hundreds of times more pay than his employees. "I’m very much a capitalist," Elliott told me in an interview. "But...
Getting Out of Our Coal Hole
When you’re in a hole, it’s usually best to stop digging. But when President Trump told supporters at his 100th day rally in Pennsylvania that "we are putting our coal miners back to work," he just burrowed deeper into the bed of administration lies on energy. The...
American Justice Now Feels Laughable
Heard any good jokes lately? Desiree Fairooz did. But laughing at it got her thrown in jail. That's right: Fairooz was just convicted for laughing during the confirmation hearing of now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in January 2017. She'd attended the hearing, in her...
The Coming Crisis for the World’s Farmers
Remember the climate crisis? It's still happening. Having a government that resembles a circus, it turns out, hasn't stopped the clock on the level of greenhouse gases in the air. At a conference in Italy, former president Barack Obama spoke recently about the impact...
How Mexican Farmers Got the Better of Trump
Often, when world powers pick fights with seemingly powerless countries, they learn that even small dogs have sharp teeth — as President Trump is finding out in his ill-fated war with Mexico. His scheme to wall off Mexico is collapsing because most people here in the...
All You Need Is Hate
In OtherWords: May 3, 2017
This week in OtherWords, Josh Hoxie looks beyond the headlines at the myths behind inequality in our country. Is it because some people just don't work as hard? Or is it because we're all starting at different places? It's the latter, he says. Which means telling...
Fighting An Unfair System
The gap between the rich and poor has been growing for decades. Some claim this growing gap is the natural result of smart, hard workers getting what they deserve (fabulous wealth) and lazy, mediocre workers getting what they deserve, too (poverty). This framing is...
Wanted: 1.5 Billion Immigrants
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump famously promised to deport every person living in this country without proper papers. I have another idea: The 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. should be granted citizenship immediately in a mass induction....
